Better late than never
by Thalia-Sandy
Summary: My alternate take on what could've/should've happened after the battle in the season 7 finale.


The sun was already beginning to set when Daryl found her, sitting on a large rock in front of the pond, still wearing her armor like the rest of Ezekiel's soldiers; So lost in her own thought, she didn't seem to notice him even when he was almost standing next to her.

"Hey…I've been looking for ya…Was afraid you'd left already…"

Carol flinched when he spoke but turned to look at him, something about her posture seemed off and she was cradling her right arm close to her body.

"I wouldn't have left you without saying Goodbye this time."  
She tried to smile but couldn't hide the pained expression.

"What's wrong with your arm? Have you been to the infirmary yet?"  
He sat down trying to look at her arm, her silence made his blood run cold.  
"Did you get bit?"  
He'd seen her take down quite a few Saviors as well as walkers.

"No. No it's not that bad…" she reassured him and then quietly, without taking her eyes of the tranquil pond, added: "I fell when I took out a walker, I think my shoulder's dislocated."

"What!? Then why are ya sitting out here by yourself?! Come on!"  
He got up and extended his hand towards her uninjured side, offering to help her get up.

"No. There are people who need the help more than I do."  
Tears were shimmering in her eyes when she looked at him.

"Michonne's stable, Rosita's gonna be alright, Rick too."  
His voice became a lot softer, realizing she wasn't being stubborn; She thought others were more important than her.

"I can fix it myself."

He gently placed his hand on her left arm.  
"I bet you can but you don't gotta, I'll do it. Had to do it a couple a times for Merle…It'll probably hurt like a bitch though."  
After a moment of hesitation she gave in, took his hand and let him help her to her feet.

"Where are we going?"  
She wondered ,when, instead of the house they used to share with the Grimes family, he went other way, until they stood in front of one of the smallest but also most cozy looking houses in Alexandria.

"S' where I live now…"

"By yourself?"

He scoffed, "Nah, with my wife and 3 kids! 'Course I live alone…Don't wanna listen to Rick and Michonne bumpin' uglies every night."  
That got a little chuckle out of her.

He placed his hand on the small of her back, which she could barely feel through her armor, and slightly nudged her towards his front door.

It looked like any other house in Alexandria, elegant and tastefully furnished, just a bit smaller than the other houses.

"Bedroom's this way." he mumbled while he lead her through the living room, past a couple of closed doors.

"Are you in a hurry to get me into your bed?"  
He could hear the mischievous grin in her voice and decided to play along.  
"Yeah, gotta get ya out of that armor first though."  
She looked at him wide eyed and surprised, wondering how far she could go until he told her to stop when he smirked and nodded towards the open door at the end of the hallway.

Much like what she'd seen of the house so far, Daryl's bedroom didn't look like he'd been living here for a very long time.  
The pillows and sheets on the left side of the huge comfy looking bed were rumpled, he apparently hadn't bothered making the bed after he got up in the morning.

"Sit down…"  
Carol wasn't sure if it was a question or a command but she was tired and in pain and the bed looked inviting so she complied.  
He sat down beside her and carefully started undoing the velcro straps on her armor, making sure he didn't cause her to accidentally move the injured shoulder.  
The way his fingers repeatedly touched her underneath the heavy armor made her break out in goosebumps.  
She'd missed and longed for his touch ever since they hugged that night at the cabin.

"Sorry."

"'It's okay."

"Ya were lookin' at me like I was hurting you" he said while letting the armor glide to the floor.  
She'd been so distracted by their close proximity that she'd started staring at him.  
"Your…uh…your shirt's gotta go too, I can't get enough grip like that."

"Okay, I can't do it myself though."

There was a moment when both of them were uncertain of what to do next until Daryl reached for the hem of her navy blue shirt and slowly, with trembling hands, raised it up.  
Carol pulled her left arm out of the sleeve and Daryl awkwardly pulled it over her shoulder, then her head and finally down her painful right arm.  
The black sports bra underneath was functional, not sexy, yet Daryl had a hard time trying not to let his eyes wander over the her soft feminine curves.  
To Carol, however it seemed like he tried to avoid looking at her because he was uncomfortable seeing her like this.  
Tobin's words echoed in her mind _"You're a mom to most of the people here."_  
Suddenly she felt stupid for even thinking someone like Daryl could find her attractive or desirable. She tried to blink away the tears that were starting to form in her eyes.

"Let's do this…Lay down,on your back…Please"  
When he saw how much she was struggling he quickly helped her by hooking his arm under her knees and carefully placing her legs on the bed.  
"There you go." he muttered and tenderly took hold of her injured arm,  
"You ready?"

Carol nodded, took a deep breath and bit her lip, in any other situation she would've enjoyed the sensation of Daryl's strong hands gliding over her skin but she knew how bad this was going to hurt.

He slowly started to pull her arm towards him and she groaned in pain, her eyes closed tightly.  
He pulled harder until he heard that telltale crack of her shoulder popping back into position.

"FUCK!"  
"Sorry! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." he stammered and soothingly ran his hand up and down her arm, until he eventually linked his fingers with hers.  
Though they were still shut, he could see the tears streaming from the corners of her eyes.

"It popped back in, it's not supposed to hurt this bad…Shit, I think I didn't do it right."  
She clasped her fingers tightly around his, stopping him.  
"I'm okay, Daryl…My shoulder is okay." her voice was shaky.

"Can I…lay down with you?"  
Her shocked expression and the fact that she'd instantly let go of his hand made him regret his question.  
"Nevermind…I…"  
"It's your bed, of course you can." she sniffled and wiped over her eyes with the back of her hand.

He silently laid down next to her, staring up at ceiling, just like her. They were quiet for a while before he inhaled deeply and told her:  
"I'm sorry I lied but ya said there wouldn't be anything left of you and…I couldn't lose you." He nervously chewed on his thumb nail.  
"I understand…I wasn't ready for the truth. Wasn't ready to fight but now I know what I have to do to protect the people I love." She said and when she turned onto her side, facing him, he did the same.  
"Is… Is Maggie's baby okay?" Her voice was barely a whisper now and in the dim orange light streaming in through the open curtains, she looked just as vulnerable and fragile as back in the little cottage.  
He reached over and gently wiped away a tear from her cheek.  
"Maggie's fine, they're fine! I promise. She moved to Hilltop with Enid after what happened…But I guess they'll stay till this is all over…What about you?"  
He pulled his hand away again but she caught it mid-air and held it, her thumb lightly stroking the skin between his bruised knuckles.  
"I'm not going anywhere until Negan and the Saviors are dead…"  
He cleared his throat and took a deep breath before asking:  
"You gonna stay with me until then?…You can have this room, I'll sleep on the couch, don't like this fancy ass bed anyways-"  
She wanted to be close to him so badly but this uncertainty made her heart feel heavy in her chest.

"Daryl…Do you think of me as a mom?"  
He looked at her with a confused frown on his face.  
"Huh? …What d'ya mean? I know you had Sophia-"  
The moment he said her daughters name out loud, he regretted it, felt like an asshole for bringing her up, but before he could apologize, she said:  
"No, I mean…do you think I'm like a mother… to you?"  
"What the fuck, Carol?! No! Why would you even think that?"  
His shocked and almost disgusted reaction made her curious yet she averted her eyes and shrugged.  
"Wait, You don't think of me as a son, do you?"  
"No. You're…You're my…"  
She frantically searched for the right words, wishing she could just tell him how she felt but she was too afraid.

"Carol, I love you." He breathed, insecurely squinting at her through his messy bangs,  
"Ya don't have to say anything…I understand. But I don't know how much time we've got left together and I need you to know."

She practically tackled him, as well as her sore shoulder allowed, and wrapped him in a tight hug.  
He loved the feel of her soft, warm skin beneath his fingers as he gently held her close while she was laying half on top of him.  
Her whole body trembled and he felt her hot tears on his cheek and her breath on his earlobe as she whispered:  
"I love you too."  
She broke away from the embrace again, their faces only inches apart. Her eyes were red and puffy and she was breathing hard, she wanted to see him when she said it.  
"I've loved you for so long."  
Carol managed to say it again, louder this time and she could feel his rapidly beating heart against her chest mirroring hers.  
She leaned in until their lips met, gentle and shy at first but soon his tongue flicked along her lips, silently asking her to deepen the kiss.  
They made out like two carefree teenagers, both completely lost in their first kiss.

When they broke apart, flushed and breathless, Daryl realized he couldn't remember the last time he felt this happy.  
"Daryl…Can we take this slow, please?" She looked at him, almost anxiously, like she expected him to be angry or ignore her question.  
He'd never been with a woman who'd asked him to wait, in fact, all of the embarrassing four times he had sex, had been spontaneous trysts, with girls he barely knew.  
"Yeah. We don't gotta do anything you don't wanna." He reassured her and gently brushed a silvery strand of hair behind her ear.  
"I want more…just not yet."  
"'S alright. I want more too…Whenever you're ready."  
"I can feel that." She smirked and glanced down to where their hips were pressed together.  
"Sorry!" He mumbled and tried to angle his lower body away from her.  
"Don't be, it's nice to know I have this effect on you, Pookie." Carol giggled and he couldn't help but chuckle too.

She dropped her head to his shoulder and sighed blissfully when his fingers started to wander again, gently caressing instead of demandingly groping like Ed used to do.  
His index finger drew a line over her lower abdomen.  
"What happened there?" he asked with a concerned look on his face.  
"I ran into some of the Saviors when I left Alexandria, one of them had a knife. I thought I'd killed them all out but one survived…"  
Daryl could see that she was struggling with those memories.  
"Morgan told me about the Savior who shot you. Where'd that son of a bitch hurt you?"  
She scooched over to _her_ side of his bed and showed him the scar on her upper arm.  
"And here." she added as she pointed her finger to where the scar on her thigh was hidden beneath her jeans.  
He sat up on the bed and undid a couple of buttons on his shirt and revealed his shoulder.  
"We've got matching scars." he said with a sad smile.  
And just like he had done earlier, she carefully trailed her fingertips over his skin, where the bullet had exited his body.  
"One of the Saviors, as well?" She asked.  
He nodded, took hold of her hand and pressed a lingering kiss to her knuckles.  
"Are you cold? I can give ya something to wear…" he said when he felt how chilly her hands were.

He walked over to his closet and rummaged around for a moment, when he came back to the bed he handed her a somewhat folded grey t-shirt and black pajama pants.  
"They're gonna be too big on ya but I ain't got any women's clothing."  
"It's fine. Thank you." she smiled and added "Can you help me again?"  
"Mhm."  
Helping Carol into the shirt was easy, the mere thought of getting her out of those tight jeans, however, made Daryl's palms sweaty and his cheeks turn beet red.  
She got up from the bed and he kneeled down in front of her, undoing her boots and the kneepads with trembling hands.  
When he heard her chuckle, Daryl looked up, wondering what the hell was so damn funny to her.  
"You're going down first, after all."  
He couldn't believe she actually remembered that; The first night at the prison, still often haunted his dreams and invaded his thoughts in the best but most distracting ways possible.  
He replied the same way he had back then:  
"Stop." Then shook his head, trying to hide his smile and added:  
"I mean… I will, but not today."

It was her turn to blush and be flabbergasted when he suggestively wiggled his eyebrow at her, as his fingers popped open the button and unzipped her pants.  
And in that moment she reconsidered having sex with him right there.  
The smile on his lips, the playful lightheartedness between them, his strong hands carefully peeling her jeans from her body, making sure not to take her black panties down as well, made her nervous and excited in a way she'd never felt before.  
Her fingers combed soothingly through his hair when she heard him gasp as he revealed the scar on her thigh, almost like seeing her hurt somehow caused him pain as well.  
Eventually he grabbed the sweatpants from the bed behind her and helped her pull them up; All the way to her hips his knuckles brushed over the outsides of her legs, giving her goosebumps again.  
One of his knees made a crunching sound as he got up from the ground.

"All done." He said as he tightened the drawstring and gave her an awkward nervous smile. For the first time since he'd opened her jeans he dared to look her in the eyes again.  
"Thank you." She returned his smile and gently brushed her hand over his arm.  
"You make yourself at home and I'm gonna put on something more comfy as well, alright?!" He said and went back to his closet, picked out something to wear and left the room, hoping Carol hadn't noticed how badly his dick was still straining against the front of his pants. 

When he came back, she was sitting against the headboard, looking completely at ease, like she was where she belonged all the time, in his bedroom.  
Her lower body covered by the comfy blanket and with a hint of a smile on her lips; The light from the classy bedside lamp was bathing her in a warm glow and making her look even more beautiful.  
Daryl had apparently made a trip to the kitchen, because he brought her a glass of water and some painkillers, which he set down on the nightstand stand next to her.  
Carol opened the half empty pill bottle that read Advil PM on the front, poured 2 of the blue pills into the palm of her hand swallowed them down with some of the water while he got situated on his side of the bed.  
"They also help ya sleep."  
"You're having trouble sleeping too, huh?"  
He frowned and nodded, he would tell her about the guilt that kept him up at night and his time at the Sanctuary ,eventually, but he wanted this night to be about them being together and giving her the opportunity to talk, if she wanted to.  
He sank down into the fluffy pillow and motioned for her to do the same.

"Are you sure this is okay, Daryl?"

"It's what couples do, ain't it?" he grinned.

Her teeth lightly sunk into her bottom lip as she gave him the sweetest smile before she turned off the lamp and snuggled into his arms.  
After gazing at each other in the darkness for a moment, he leaned down and kissed her goodnight, so tender and full of love, her heart felt like it would burst.

"We should've done this a lot sooner." She chuckled when the kiss came to an end.

"Better late than never."


End file.
